Using information rights to expose flawed policy

Home Office excluded Eritrean children in France being relocated to the UK because of flawed guidance

Published:
12th June 2018

Under the Freedom of Information Act, PLP, acting on behalf of a concerned individual, obtained information from the Home Office revealing that a visit by its officials to Eritrea in December 2014 was made in order to discuss reducing Eritrean migration to the UK. At the time, the grant rate for Eritrean asylum claims was over 85%. The disclosed documents showed the Home Office doubted the reliability of Eritrean government officials, and it could not significantly reduce the asylum grant rate. Despite this, in March 2015 the Home Office changed its policy position, which led to a reduction in the number of Eritreans it recognised as refugees to 48% by June 2016. In a majority of cases where the Eritreans lodged an appeal, the independent judiciary found the Home Office had made the wrong decision. However, the drop in the initial grant rate between July 2015 and June 2016 has had the effect of excluding many Eritrean unaccompanied children from being admitted to the UK under the ‘Dubs’ amendment policy. This is an example of PLP using information rights to expose poor policy making by the UK Government with the effect of denying vulnerable people assistance.
Alison Pickup, PLP’s Legal Director, said: “The fact that the Home Office has excluded many Eritrean children in France from the possibility of being relocated to the UK under the ‘Dubs’ amendment on the basis of a statistic which is a result of its own flawed country guidance is a tragedy.”